Sonoma’s Recent Repave Helps Set New Records
Sonoma’s recent repave — the first in over two decades — has helped Speed SF’s fastest set new records in three of the Challenge groups.
Speed SF’s drivers were fortunate to be the first members of the public to experience Sonoma’s new repave — the first in twenty-three years. One of Northern California’s most popular race tracks, Sonoma has been the site of NASCAR, IndyCar, and World Touring Car races over its fifty-five years.
Construction began after Christmas, with ABSL Construction of California milling out over 10,000 tons of asphalt from the track and pit lane, then grinding down the track, repairing old cracks, and laying the new asphalt.
Crack sealing in January.
Construction completed on February 23rd, two weeks before Speed SF was able to experience the new surface for ourselves.
The scenery was verdant, but the repave was far from green at Speed SF’s first full-track event of the season — enabling some of our front-runners to set new records in three of our Speed SF Challenge groups. Even those who hadn’t set new records set personal records. “The track is about three seconds faster than before,” Patrick Chio reported.
S4
In S4, Sean Win-Yepez cut 1.1 seconds off his previous best.
“There is more grip everywhere, but the gains are especially noticeable in T3/3A. There, there was so much grip that my power steering started to cut out!
One observation is that the curbs are not redone, so they now offer relatively less grip than the track itself, whereas before they were essentially about the same as the pavement. So, drivers who didn't use the curbs before will pick up more time than drivers who used them a lot.
My setup has remained pretty similar to last year, and I don’t think I benefited as much in the traction zones as some of the more powerful cars,” he added.
S3
In S3, power helped spread the distance from the previous bests a bit further. Spencer Kimball chopped the previous S3 record, set by him last May, by 2.59 seconds. In the last fifteen months, nothing about his setup has changed aside from some weight reduction. "The new paving really helps with consistency and driver confidence. Thanks to the smoother surface and lack of cracks, you can now take T1 and T2 on proper line instead of diverting your path to avoid surface undulations. I have yet to analyze my data and compare it to my previous run’s, but my lap times were about two seconds faster than my last event at Sonoma in 2023.
Based on my quick and dirty analysis, time was gained in T1, the exit of T6, and the T8/8A esses. One of the coolest features of this totally fresh paving is that my tires looked brand new after the event. Once it's rubbered in, I think we'll be seeing a lot more sub-40 cars at Sonoma,” Spencer predicted.
S2
In S2, Maxwell Lisovsky was able just to show what his monster E36 is capable of. It has benefited from the most development as of late, but that doesn’t take anything away from his staggering 1:39.3 — a whopping 3.5 seconds faster than his previous best. Now, applying the power cleanly in second-gear corners is almost an afterthought for a sorted track tool wearing slicks.
It seems that, due to gaining something more in the traction zones, the punchier cars have been able to take better advantage of the new grip available. However, even those in the budget cars and the underpowered scalpels will find something to love about the fantastic new surface at Sonoma Raceway. These times bode well for the future, which promises novel challenges for drivers and opportunities to push harder than they ever have before..
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